Red Faction Series to get Another Revamp?

Vice President of Core Games, Danny Bilson has talked about Red Faction 4. Among his comments were a few that hint heavily at a series revamp:

I don’t want my marketing guy to be pissed at me for giving away too much, but it goes back underground and it’s really cool.

The things that I think were the problem with Guerilla were not the gameplay but the IP. Being in a dusty environment for a long period of time could get a little monotonous

It’s [Red Faction 4] cooler environments and there are elements in it that have never been in a Red Faction before as far as enemies go and…

Red Faction: Guerilla was a huge diversion from the formally linear FPS series, so will Red Faction 4 (RF4) do a U-turn and take the series back to it’s roots? Or are these comments just hints at a change in enviroment? Well the comment about going underground is very important; normally when you think underground in video games you think tunnels, lots and lots of tunnels with the occasional boss fight in a cavern but will this be the case with RF4? I certainly hope not, the open world in Guerilla was great fun mainly because of the destructive buildings it allowed. If the series were to go underground it would have to still maintain relatively open world in order to achieve the same level of destruction which, if levels do become more enclosed, would be impossible.

On the other hand his comments could simply mean only parts of the game will be underground, the rest will occur on the surface of Mars or perhaps even another planet. Which brings me to my next point, will RF4 move away from the Red Planet? Bilson talks about how the dusty enviroment got boring, so to combat this will be start the series a fresh on a new plant? Maybe one with more greenery and animal life, it certainly wouldn’t do the series harm and could help introduce a much more exciting game. However he may just be talking about an EDF terra-forming initiative on Mars. His final comment refers to new types of enemies or possibly new ways to interact (kill) them. I think we’ll see tougher enemies, with better AI, which will require more tactical gameplay to takedown. Or we may see different types of enemies such as (if the series changed plantes) animals. Either way we can expect to see big things from RF4 (hopefully then toppled over using the destruction system).

So what do you want to see from Red Faction 4? More of the same or something new? Leave a comment.